Greenery: it all around us, but much more ought to be inside us!

I’m talking about eating green vegetables – just as our mothers told us! She was right. For millions and millions of wild animals it is the staple food that keeps them alive. Just think about it, the biggest animals in the world, living off grass and other green leaves without a steak in sight! Have you ever spotted them rushing to the hospital or the doctor?

The easy way to eat your greens

None of us have the time these days to be grazing on greens all day but we are lucky to have juicers so that we can juice our greens and get the benefit of lots of nutrients in an easy to manage form. BUT, there is a downside when we have to clean the juicer!

Many people seek to find wheatgrass juice in many formats – powdered, frozen, in pills. I know a lot of people stoically do grow and juice their own, but sadly only a few succeed and persevere. (That’s why we, at Tonic Attack, are here, to make life simple for those who find it hard.) If somebody gave me £1 for every juicer that is lying in a cupboard up and down the country, having been bought with the best of intentions, used for a while, and then parked to gather dust, I’d undoubtedly be a very rich man! SO… the easy, and just as nutritious, way to have all the benefits without the mess, is to buy juice ready juiced!

It’s official! Wheatgrass juice is a food NOT a drink!

It’s worth pointing out at this stage that juices aren’t a drink, but a food – officially confirmed by the VAT office! When I first started growing wheatgrass, the people at HMRC took me to a VAT tribunal. After a very lengthy battle, and a tribunal hearing, they agreed that the juices are food! It’s all to do with the protein level.

Protein in juice?

As a vegetarian I am always asked where I get my protein. Most people believe that meat, fish and animal products are essential to a healthy diet! There is more protein per 100 calories of broccoli than there is in 100 calories of beef steak. In fact there is more of everything in broccoli than there is in a beef steak with the exception of fat and cholesterol which, of course, red meat has in spades!

Raw wheatgrass juice, high protein and loads of minerals!

So by now you will have gathered that I am a proponent of green juices! And I will admit a vested interest being the proud seller of raw wheatgrass juice and broccoli sprout juice grown and processed as simply as possible.

Seeds are sown, and the crops grown hydroponically, but not just fed with any old water. Filtered water, but crucially we add diluted ocean water to deliver the full mineral spectrum. I’ve no doubt at all that the vast majority of human misery and ill-health relates to food that is both nutritionally deprived, grown on soils that are mineral deficient, and far too often maltreated from the point of harvest.

Hence, once we have our crop a week after sowing the seeds, we cut the leaves and some of the roots, juice them, pop the juice in sachets, and then subject those to a very high pressure to negate the impact of any bacteria present. The best bit about this process is that it does nothing to damage the nutritional value, and confers a shelf life of over 8 weeks on the juice, and even better, with storage only being required at ambient temperature.

We do exactly the same with broccoli sprouts……

These aren’t easy to grow or to juice. However, we do it! The beauty of broccoli is the high concentration in the sprouts of the critical compound sulforophane. There are dozens and dozens of research papers that have been written about the power of sulforophane. The beauty about harvesting sprouts, and juicing them is that the concentration of this compound is massively increased by at least five times. Because we use the same process as the wheatgrass juice for packaging, we are preserving this compound for you.

You’re never going to be like the cow and live entirely off wheatgrass juice, or harness all you need from broccoli sprout juice. However, as a means of acquiring a very concentrated and powerful source of nutrients, both have long since seemed unrivalled to me.

The powers that be v the power of juice

I would love to tell you so much more about the power of the juices. I’d love to regale the many, many wonderful stories we hear back regularly from consumers. But ‘the powers that be’ cause endless irritation to people like me and Elaine Bruce who are trying to spread the word about natural solutions to today’s health issues. Although even I find it hard to believe the impact the juice has on a lot of people, why would I disbelieve what people tell me just because some scientist in a white coat hasn’t verified the personal reaction. In my book that doesn’t devalue or discredit the results people are getting.

I sometimes think it discredits those ‘powers that be’ when they decry what is perfectly clear to an ordinary person!

Providing your engine with the best fuel

Meanwhile, remember that it’s always best to service your vehicle before you need it and fill it with the best fuel before you set off on any journey. Why do we treat a motor car so differently to the human body? Mechanics know all about the wiring looms that keep the car running. But did you know that you’ve over 60,000 miles of capillaries in your body? They are all there to move things around, to keep you healthy, but don’t appreciate being given poor grade “tools” or “fuel” to work with.

Therefore, I suggest that there is one resolution you need to make, and that is to feed yourself the best and least adulterated food you can find. Clearly this would be, in an ideal world, organic, which has many people thinking they can’t afford it. I have to tell you that I think of that as fallacious. Whilst it can be expensive in some places, it need not be expensive in the right places. Grow your own? Search out a friendly local farmer/farm shop? Think about what you’re eating – things out of season will always be more expensive. Do you need the more expensive components in a diet, such as meat?

I’m also a farmer, and it’s a jolly good way to get my farmer friends to tip their head sideways when I say to them that I’m vegetarian!